Exclusive: Melissa Errico talks ‘Billions,’ Motherhood, and More

Singing, acting, writing; Melissa Errico does it all!

On Thursday, February 4, Resident Magazine threw a party at SoHo Contemporary Art Gallery (259 Bowery) to celebrate their first issue of 2016. The guest of honor was Broadway veteran and newfound television star Melissa Errico, who had appeared on the cover of this issue.

As a self-identified ‘Bowery girl’, Errico appeared right at home as she posed for photos and admired the pop art that adorned the walls. The party had a laidback and comfortable atmosphere as guests laughed and mingled while drinking wine and sampling Bavarian-inspired hors d’oeuvres provided by Paulaner NYC. About halfway through the evening, Errico charmed the guests with a brief set of three songs, accompanied on keyboards by her father. She sang “Something New in My Life” by Michel Legrand, “Show Me”, the centerpiece of My Fair Lady that she performed on Broadway in her 20’s, and the Jazz classic “Someone to Watch Over Me”. Errico chose to sing without a microphone and with the audience surrounding her in a circle, creating an intimate and casual atmosphere.

Before gracing the guests with her beautiful voice, Errico was able to devote a few minutes to us for an exclusive interview on her recent premiere of Billions on Showtime, her charity, and how motherhood has influenced her acting career.

We wanted to ask what you think of the event tonight.

Melissa Errico: Well, I mean, first of all it’s in my old neighborhood. I actually now live around NYU, but I’m a Bowery girl, and I started something called the “Bowery Babes”, so anything on Bowery Street – I started it ten years ago, as well as being an actress, so if you read the article in this magazine it has a whole page on this charity that I started right here on Bowery, and ten years ago I decided to connect all the groovy moms in the neighborhood and there’s over 3,000 members now and 24 native languages. And it’s a really motley, amazing group, as well as reflective of the Bowery area. It’s just you have high, you have low, you have everything, you have people with money, without money, you have a lot of members in Chinatown, it’s just incredible. So Bowery Street, anything with Bowery Street always feels like a good match for me. Art galleries are great, I was an art history major at Yale, I’m like an art buff, my mother’s a painter so I like being around paintings and art. You know, I like dressing up for a gallery, I feel like I always know how to do that. You know, it’s always like blazer, tight jeans, high boots. So cocktail party at a gallery is fun. And then I’m on the cover of a magazine in my 40’s, which is amazing. So that’s good. You know, moms are like the new black.

Great quote! And what was it like to cover the magazine? 

Errico: We have to say something nice about Hamilton in this interview because it’s really all I want to talk about. I saw it last night. You should actually go on my Facebook page, I did an emotional poem about it. I just let it rip, and I woke up this morning and Lin Manuel had liked and friended me! Everybody made sure he saw it. I am overwhelmed by it. I wrote this crazy poem, and at the very end I said it is a ‘white water torrent of musical theater perfection’. It’s spastic. It’s amazing. So anyway, so I feel great about tonight, the magazine’s amazing, the Bowery area is a good match, my husband is cute, you’re here, what’s to complain about? And Billions is good! I did my first national nude scene on Sunday. So my character’s insane and everybody’s so thrilled with that episode. Honestly, I didn’t even watch it yet ‘cause I knew how big my performance was, from the exotic as I described, all the way to a real big mental breakdown when my kid doesn’t get into Stanford. This is a woman, a hedge fund woman, who’s given her life for her kids, and Damian Lewis is trying to bring her down because she wrote a book about him. He used to be my husband’s partner.

That performance was a lot, as you said. How were able to put yourself in that space? Did you take things from your own personal life?

Errico: Yes. You know what’s interesting is that you’ve been in a business as long as I have, which is now thirty years, you know I starred in My Fair Lady when I was 22 here in town, but before that was Les Miserables, I was 18. I started acting at 12. And I keep waiting for the day where – You know I realize I haven’t a huge hit, a really defining, defining role, but I’ve also had a wonderful career. And when you get an opportunity to play characters at any point in your life you usually have the information you need. At this point in my life, I’m ten years into parenting, I have a nine year old and twin girls who are seven, and they’re here. I already can sense what it will be like to double those numbers, and my kid is perfect, and then he doesn’t get into Stanford because I got black-balled, and the idea that someone would bring my kid down. You see I already have ten years of killing myself on behalf of my own kids. So then the roles, in other words, usually reflect the life information I have. I’m not the youngest girl or the prettiest girl or the cleverest girl anymore, but that’s ok. Because now I am someone who knows what it’s like to fight for a kind of lifestyle, a kind of education and then have your kid get screwed would be heartbreaking. Also, I know a little bit about rebirth and renewal. The character is a 9/11 widow, she wants to get going again, she writes a book, she wants a book deal, she sleeps with the editor, she wants to be sexy and attractive, and now look, I’m on the cover of a magazine! People are always looking for renewal. You never want to get the memo that it’s time to stop, it’s time to give up. The role is great, but I’m also giving you the bigger stuff that goes on in your mind as an actor, which is really not about my acting, it’s about life. Whether it’s writing, or a medical practice, or an art gallery, you have to evolve. I wouldn’t throw it away. Like Hamilton says, ‘don’t throw away your shot’.

You talk a lot about renewal and moving forward and progressing. Is there anything you want to do now? Anything you want to do in the future?

Errico: I’ll always stop anything for a musical or a Sondheim role or something like A Little Night Music. If something comes along, I’ll just drop dead to do it. Well I won’t drop dead, that would be a problem. But a musical is always a musical to a musical theater actress. It’s like everything pales in comparison to showtime because I’m just that kind of girl, I’m that bird. But I think would I would like, because I’m interested in it now, is to work in television more. I love the technicals and I feel like I have an inner life now behind the eyes and I really enjoy it. I feel like if somebody looks at me and I’m playing a housewife who’s on pills or something, I feel like I can play five contradictory feelings in one second, and you can’t do that on stage because you have to be clearer. So I actually feel that the more muddled and complex life is getting, I actually might be good on screen because it celebrates that. You can read into it. I’d love to trip out a little more in television.

You said you wanted to do more TV, is there anyone you want to work with?

Errico: There’s a director named Neil Burger who I really enjoyed working with on Billions and another guy named Scott Hornbacher, who produced Mad Men. They’re both really different kinds of people. It’s funny, I’ve turned into that actor who now knows the director is so important. I’m interested in the directors I’m meeting. I’d like to just develop those relationships because the truth is the more trust you get with a director, the freer you are. You’re not trying to find each other. And that confidence and that flow, I think that’s why people like Jennifer Lawrence will do multiple movies with the same director.

Okay, one question tonight about shows. If you could sing one song with one artist who and what would it be?

Errico: I’m going to say right now Josh Groban. I’d love to sing a Sondheim song called “Move On”. He’s done it before and he’s done it with this elderly woman named Barbara Cook who’s a great, great actress, great singer, and I would love a shot at that.

Last question, anything else coming up for you that you want to share with us? 

Errico: So there’s this wonderful theater in Williamsburg called the National Sawdust, it’s like the hottest place. It’s like the Brooklyn Academy of Music, it’s this really chic place. I wrote a play that debuted at the Public Theater and they want to see it, and I’m doing it on March 18^th. I’m really excited about that. The next couple weeks I’m touring with the Utah Symphony and Cleveland Symphony. But Manhattan people can see me March 18^th. It’s a really interesting play and I co-wrote it with a New Yorker Magazine writer named Adam Gopnik. He’s kind of a legend, and we co-wrote it. It’s called Sing the Silence. It’s about women and silence and being heard. My new life, my wannabe life is to write. I have some sassy writing and Adam is teaching me a lot. He’s interested in musical theater so it kind of goes both ways. Thank you guys!

Photo credit: Public Theater